Anne Sexton:

An Inventory of Her Art Collection at the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center

Creator:

Sexton, Anne, 1928-1974

Title:

Anne Sexton Art
Collection

Dates:

1967, n.d.

Abstract:

The Anne Sexton Art Collection
consists of fifteen oil paintings by Anne Sexton, and eight lithographic proofs
of the same image by Barbara Swan. The paintings by Sexton, all undated, were
created as a part of her therapy.

Extent:

3 boxes, 8
oversize folders (23 items)

Repository:

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas at Austin

Born Anne Gray Harvey, Anne Sexton (1928-1974) was the
youngest of three daughters born to a well-off couple in Weston, Massachusetts.
Sexton's father owned and ran a wool business and her mother, well educated and
intelligent, maintained an active social schedule of parties and charity
events. The sisters were not close, each vying for the attention of their busy
parents and pursuing their own interests. Anne's behavior as a child, seemingly
always in motion, making noise, and looking disheveled, excluded her from many
of the family's social activities.

In junior high school Sexton lost her awkwardness and became
the center of a gang of girlfriends. Her first attempt at poetry resulted from
a breakup with long-time boyfriend Jack McCarthy. During her senior year in
high school Sexton wrote more poetry, some of which was published in the school
paper. When Sexton's mother essentially accused her of plagiarizing the poems,
Sexton stopped writing poetry altogether for ten years.

After high school, in 1947, Sexton attended finishing school
at the Garland School in Boston. While there, she became engaged and began
planning a big wedding. However, in 1948, Sexton met and fell in love with
Alfred Muller Sexton II, nicknamed Kayo. In August of the same year, afraid
that she was pregnant, Sexton and Kayo, on the advice of her mother, eloped to
North Carolina. Returning from their honeymoon, the young couple spent the next
few years moving back and forth between their parents' homes. Kayo dropped his
pre-med studies after a few months and found work with a wool firm. In 1951,
Kayo was shipped overseas with the naval reserves, and in the fall of 1952,
Sexton joined him in San Francisco, where his ship was being overhauled, and
almost immediately became pregnant. They returned to Massachusetts for the
Christmas holidays and Sexton remained at her parents' home for the remainder
of her pregnancy. Linda Gray Sexton was born on July 21, 1953, and shortly
thereafter the Sextons bought a house in Newton Lower Falls, MA, and Kayo
accepted a position with his father-in-law's wool company. Two years later,
Joyce Ladd Sexton was born on August 4, 1955.

Shortly after Joyce's birth, Sexton began a year-long slide
into the depression that would plague her for the rest of her life. Feeling
disoriented and agitated, she sought help from Dr. Martha Brunner-Orne who
diagnosed post-partum depression and prescribed medication. After five months
of treatment Sexton developed a paralyzing fear of being alone with her
children. She became increasingly prone to attacks of blinding rage which often
led to abusive behavior towards Linda. Afraid that she would actually kill the
child, Sexton finally confided some of her problems to her family and they
rallied to support her. During Kayo's business trips, his sister would stay
with her, and Kayo's father offered to help cover some of the expenses of
therapy. Sexton's parents sent their housemaid to help with the housework and
also sent money. However, this practical help did not solve Sexton's problems
and in July of 1956 she entered Westwood Lodge, a private hospital, for three
weeks. While at Westwood Lodge, Sexton met Dr. Brunner's son, Dr. Orne, who was
to be her psychiatrist for the next eight years.

Sexton was released from Westwood Lodge on August 3, 1956,
but her condition continued to decline. Dr. Orne placed her in Glenside Mental
Institution after she took an overdose of Nembutal in November. Sometime in
1956, Sexton began writing poetry. She showed the poems to Orne who vigorously
encouraged her to continue writing. Over the course of 1957, Sexton brought
over 60 completed poems to Orne for approval. In the fall of 1957, she began
attending an adult education poetry workshop taught by John Holmes. By the end
of the year, Holmes suggested that Sexton seek publication. In April of 1958,
The Fiddlehead Review published
"Eden Revisited."

Sexton continued to attend Holmes' seminar through 1958. It
was there that she met and became close friends with Maxine Kumin. That same
year, Sexton attended the Antioch Writer's Conference, where she worked with
W.D. Snodgrass, and took a graduate poetry writing seminar with Robert Lowell.
In 1959 she received a Robert Frost Scholarship to attend the Bread Loaf
Writer's Conference in Vermont. In 1960 this work culminated in the publication
of a collection of poems,
To Bedlam and Partway Back. Well
received,
Bedlam was the first of ten
collections of verse Sexton published in her lifetime.

In 1961 Sexton received a Radcliffe Institute fellowship as
did her friend Maxine Kumin (1961-1963). The two women became part of a circle
of close friends that included the fiction writer Tillie Olsen and the painter
Barbara Swan. Sexton bought one of Swan's first lithographs, and the two later
collaborated on various projects, including some broadsides, jackets for three
works (
Live or Die,
The Book of Folly, and
The Death Notebooks), and
illustrations for
Transformations.

Over the next fourteen years Sexton wrote poetry, short
stories, a major theatrical production, and presented her poetry at readings,
alone and with musical accompaniment. She taught poetry courses at Boston
University, Oberlin, and Wayland High School. She became a major presence in
the American poetry scene and helped earn respect for women poets in general.
In 1965 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 1967
she received both the Shelley Memorial Award and the Pulitzer Prize for
Live or Die (1966). In 1968
Sexton was awarded honorary membership in the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta
Kappa, the first woman to receive this award, and in 1969 she was made a member
of the Radcliffe chapter. She received honorary doctorates from Tufts
University and Fairfield University in 1970, and from Regis College in
1973.

Despite these and other accolades, Sexton continued to
struggle with her mental illness, taking pills and drinking heavily to combat
her fears. To the dismay of many, but perhaps the surprise of none, she took
her own life on October 4, 1974. Sexton's daughters and friends published
several volumes of poems and letters after her death, including
45 Mercy Street (1975),
Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in
Letters (1977), and
Words for Dr. Y.: Uncollected Poems with
Three Short Stories (1978).

The Anne Sexton Art Collection consists of fifteen oil
paintings by Anne Sexton, and eight lithographic proofs of the same image by
Barbara Swan. The paintings by Sexton, all undated, were created as a part of
her therapy. Seven of the proofs by Barbara Swan represent states of a
broadside publication of Sexton's poem
"For the Year of the Insane"
(1967). The eighth proof is for a poster for Sexton's 1967 appearance at the
International Poetry Forum. The works are divided into two series: I. Paintings
by Anne Sexton, and II. Prints by Barbara Swan for
"For the Year of the Insane."
They are arranged by accession number. Titles of the paintings were supplied by
the cataloger.

The Ransom Center also has extensive Anne Sexton materials in
its Manuscripts Collection, its Library, its Photography Collection, and its
Personal Effects Collection.